Allentown firefighter Steve Munsch is an avid reader, so the sight of him sitting in a couch immersed in a book isn't exactly shocking, except on this night he's surrounded by 120 poker players at the Sands casino.

It was good that he was holding a 400-page novel, because Munsch was among 78 people waiting to try their luck at one of Pennsylvania's newly opened poker tables.

"I love playing poker, but I'm not a big fan of waiting," Munsch said. "I'll probably get through another 100 pages before I get a seat."

Munsch is part of a Pennsylvania casino poker explosion that has Texas Hold 'em tables bulging with strategy junkies who used to play the game illegally in homes and private clubs. But since July, they've been flocking to casinos where the game is now legal, the drinks free and the doors open 24 hours.

The unearthing of this underground poker community has caught casinos off-guard. As players wait hours to get a seat on busy weekend nights, some casinos operators are rushing to add more tables and dealers in poker rooms.

At the head of that rush is Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, which after spending months getting state approval, will nearly double the size of its 120-seat poker room by adding 11 tables Friday.

Sands is operating one of the state's more overwhelmed poker rooms. Its 12 poker tables — with 10 seats each — are full for much of the day, starting around 11 a.m. and remaining nearly full until after 2 a.m. Some Sands officials expected a brief period each day, from say 3 a.m. to 9 a.m., in which the poker room would close each day.

Turns out, the urge to win money from other players never sleeps.

"We've got players in there 24/7," said Jack Kennedy, Sands' director of table games. "That room hasn't gone dead for a minute since we opened it."

With the new tables, Sands officials are hoping the wait is over for players like Munsch, and the bigger room will allow Sands to join the growing number of casinos scheduling poker tournaments, said Sands poker room manager David Urie.

Sands is one of several casinos trying to deal with unexpected demand. Nearly 300 miles away at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, all 26 poker tables are running full tilt on most nights. And according to casino general manager Todd Moyer, not every seat is filled with the kind of young men featured in those televised tournaments.

"Last Saturday, we had a waiting list of 157 people who wanted seats," Moyer said. "We expected a younger demographic, but really, we're seeing everyone — young, old, women and men. I guess they all learned online."

Consider that in the first three months of play, poker tables at Pennsylvania casinos brought in daily revenues of $905 per table. By comparison, the poker tables in Atlantic City casinos brought in $512 per table for the same period, according to revenues released by gaming control boards in both states.

Already, there are websites dedicated to playing poker in Pennsylvania.

"As Pennsylvania flourishes, Atlantic City revenues decline," said Shawn McCloud, director of analysis for New Jersey-based casino industry experts Spectrum Gaming Group. "Poker is a very hot commodity in Pennsylvania right now and there's no indication it is going to cool off."

While poker tables don't bring casinos the kind of clear profit they get from slot machines, operators like them because they draw players who tend to be younger and male, who bring wives and girlfriends who drop money in the slot machines while they play.

Steve Correll, 36, of Allentown is a stereotypical poker player. The former youth counselor-turned-pro says he plays poker 50 to 80 hours a week and considers it his day job. He frequently arrives at Sands by 9:30 a.m. and waits for the "fish," or inexperienced player, to arrive. He estimates that before Sands had poker, an underground community of about 150 avid players moved from game to game around the Lehigh Valley. Some did it to make a living, while others were just feeding their gambling appetite. Getting good at Texas Hold 'em can only be done by playing a lot, Correll believes, so for the first week table games opened, he spent nearly 100 hours at the Sands' tables.

"I'd say there are maybe 20 or 25 guys a day at Sands that consider it their job," Correll said. "The rest are just having fun, or maybe they saw it on ESPN and they think they can clean up. Those are the guys I make my living off of."

Still, most of Pennsylvania's poker players consider it a hobby, though some hope it's a hobby they can turn into a job. Paul Kim, a 28-year-old nursing student from Flushing, N.Y., is what Correll would call a "fish."

"I'm a beginner, so I didn't bring a lot of money to lose," said Kim, who was among 67 people waiting for a seat at Sands on a recent Saturday night. "But I like it. I'm hoping to get better."

It's strictly a hobby for Chrissy Wachter, 40, of Bath, but one she's passionate about. Often, the mother of three is the only woman at the table at Sands.